This Week In Videogames – 24/04/2016

Golden Oldies

It’s not just forty year olds with un-ironic Atari shirts
who pine for the good ol’ days of flickering sprites and brawlers, Sega longs
for those halcyon days too, in an attempt to recapture that early nineties dream
they announced that a Sega Mega Drive Classics Hub would launch on Steam next
week. Classic titles like Golden Axe and Streets of Rage have been available on
Steam for a while now; this Hub will render those games into a 3D space, a
bedroom with a golden axe propped up against a wall, take a look:

Games in the Hub will feature graphic filters – to capture that CRT monitor look, for example – save points, and full controller support. More significant is the coming Steam Workshop integration, allowing people to share mods. Most of it is stuff enthusiasts have hacked together years ago, illegally, but it’s nice to see a company actually embrace their legacy in this way.

Sweet Mother

I’ve done a pretty fine job of not playing The Elder Scrolls Online since it went free-to-play, I logged in once a couple of weeks ago, completed one quest and was reminded why I stopped originally. Clearly it’s hitting for someone though because Bethesda posted this creepy Dark Brotherhood DLC teaser.

Of Fair Maidens And Chivalrous Knights

If you’ve read any of the ‘This Week’ roundups over the last
few months, weeks certainly, you’ll have no doubt witnessed my insatiable
thirst for Total War: Warhammer news. I’ll make no attempt to hide my personal
excitement as a long time Total War player, and equally long time Warhammer
enthusiast. Initially I had some reservations, not believing as some did that
it would be a truly harmonious match, but the pre-release blogs and videos have
done a lot to persuade me otherwise – I’m hopeful.

Equally, the notion of post-release support excites rather
than disgusts me, and as we covered last week, Total War: Warhammer will have a
lot of it. This week Creative Assembly
revealed that a limited Bretonnian roster will be playable in custom and
multiplayer battles from launch, but not in the campaign. I’m wagering that
Bretonnia will be the as yet undisclosed free race added to the Grand Campaign
sometime after the game’s launch.

Here’s a twenty-five minute let’s play showing of a
Bretonnian city besieged by the Vampire Counts:

The Future Of E-Sports

Creators of Transistor and Bastion announced their next
title, Pyre. In keeping with their previous releases, Pyre appears to have a unique
visual style and concept. It’s an RPG where you perform rites rather than fight,
or so it seems, sports-like rites at that. Here’s the reveal trailer:

Enter The Fake Resolutions

Easily the biggest news this week was Austin Walker’s
PlayStation 4 ‘NEO’ scoop, over on Giant Bomb.
Having received development documentation and corroborated with multiple
sources, Giant Bomb revealed the rumoured PS4.5 to be codenamed ‘NEO’, full
details can be found on article linked below, but here are the salient points:

The NEO will feature upgraded hardware:

From October onward, all PS4 games will require a ‘Base
Mode’ (for original PS4s) and a ‘NEO Mode’.

The NEO will support 4K image output, this includes 4K
games, though the framerate of NEO Mode games must at least equal that of the
Base Mode version, it will also upscale content to 4K.

There will be no NEO-only games, or indeed NEO-only features
– you couldn’t add a NEO exclusive gamemode for example. PS4 and NEO players
will exist in the same ecosystem, with regards to PSN and multiplayer.

In short all games can be played anywhere, but games might
look and run a little better on the NEO, which has an emphasis on 4K support.